Our Transformation

Sunday, February 17, 2013

So I just found that I am the 2012 Body
for Life Champion!! I can't believe it right now. It really has not
sunk in. It is such an honor. I'm honored that the judges thought I
was worthy enough for this position. This transformation was a team
effort with my wife Liz. Even though I may have won the title, the
honor goes to Liz too. I actually remember thinking she had a better
chance at winning than I did. I'm truly excited that we can now,
more than ever, inspire others with our transformation. This now
gives us credibility to encourage others. Of my five goals in the beginning I can now mark off the last goal of winning.

When I got the email saying they wanted
to have a phone conversation with me, I thought I'd better review my
blog and remind myself of my journey last summer. As I read through
I had forgotten a lot that I had been through with it. Most of all,
I was reminded that this was God's battle. I relived how God worked
with us in this transformation providing opportunities for us to get
the right workout in and how He provided the finances for all the
healthy foods we needed. All the different thoughts and
encouragements that came along were completely from Him. I noticed
in week 8 of my blog I wrote, “I am pretty sure that our only
chance at winning this competition is to have God on our side.”
People, this is more than a coincidence. Another interesting thing
happened recently. I had forgotten about the competition since we
did it last summer. About a week and a half ago I was looking
through an old prayer list of mine and one of the things on it was
“Win Body for Life.” I said a little prayer about it remembering
that God WAS with us on that journey. It was only later that day
that I received the email saying they wanted to talk with me. I did
a phone interview the next day as a finalist and the following day
they called me to tell me I was the champion for my age group. Woah!

I could easily run off saying, “Look
what I did!” I'm thankful I wrote this blog that reminds me and
can show others that it is God who was working through me. So my
boasting is in Him. This has been a big step for me in my spiritual
journey to heaven and I am encouraged all the more to commit whatever
I do to God.

God, I can't believe this! I'm
amazed at Your faithfulness in this event. I wish I could say I knew
and trusted all along that this would happen. I realize this is all
part of Your purposes. I am nothing. I want more than ever to
follow You and make sure I am on Your side in all my battles. Please
let this be an encouragement to others to commit their lives to You.

If you are
unfamiliar with the Body for Life program, you can check it out at
this link:

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Hey, guess what?
We made it! We completed the program and have turned in all our
entrance information for the competition. We actually finished the
program two weeks ago. It has just taken a while to get around to
writing the blog. All of our goals have been met. Of course we will
have to wait to see if we won the competition.

LIZ'S ACCOUNT

So
far after completing the challenge I have lost 16 pounds which was 6
more pounds lost than I had hoped for. I did complete the 12 week
program without ever missing a workout or meal. I hope to win the
competition but will have to wait to find out on that. The only
chance I have had to be a good example to my athletes was competing
in a 5k race at the end of the challenge that many of my athletes ran
in. One of the parents of a girl I coach thought I was a new girl on
the team and realized afterward that I was their coach. I also got
some nice comments from my athletes so I hope this will give me more
credibility when I actually get a chance to coach them next season.
Finally, I think the photos show how far I have come on my belly. I
can't believe how slimmed down my stomach has gotten!

As
I worked through the program I noticed that I became more organized,
developed extra energy and motivation, and gained a desire to help
and inspire others. As a mom it is very hard to plan ahead for
everything because the kids can make a mess or have a dirty diaper at
any moment. However, I learned through this program that things were
easier when I did plan ahead not only with the program but with house
cleaning, errands, and time with the kids. In the evenings my husband
and I used to watch TV and snack for two or three hours because we
were worn out from the day. During this program I had more energy to
clean up the dishes at night and take care of any last minute tasks
for the day. I also slept better because I wanted to be rested and
ready for my workouts in the morning. I think the biggest surprise
was developing a strong desire to encourage others with their weight
and exercise issues. I’ve had several comments from others about
the changes they have seen in me and I really enjoyed sharing my
journey with them. I especially love sharing how simple the meal plan
is and all the good foods we have been eating. I know so many people,
including myself, give in to food temptations easily. I developed the
mental strength to easily resist these temptations because I always
knew I had my free day for them. I also began to not really want the
junk food even when I had my free days. I'm so proud of myself for
completing this program and I plan to keep it up.

DAVID'S
ACCOUNT

Well
I completed the program quite well. I did miss a couple of days due
to getting worn out between work and not sleeping well. I kept up
with the eating plan everyday though. I think I had one meal mishap.
So I would say goal one was a success. As far as becoming a Body for
Life Champion, I will have to wait and see. Goal three was to gain 9
pounds of muscle and I gained 10 pounds. At about week three of the
program I started feeling more energized. I was able to do hard
physical tasks like yard work when I normally would be too exhausted
to do them. My last goal was to support my wife through the program
and she completed it successfully. We planned meals and cooked
together. We had to work out separately but we would take turns
watching the kids so we each could get our workouts in. So I think I
did really well with my goals. I am so happy to have achieved all of
them. I certainly hope I did enough for the competition to be a
winner.

As
I compare my before and after photos of this challenge I see how
scrawny I was 12 weeks ago. I thought I looked healthy before the
challenge but now I look and feel solid. What a confidence booster! I
feel so proud to have completed this challenge and also to have met
almost all of my goals. I learned how to set goals better by defining
what I want and having a plan to achieve it. My imagination has run
wild with ideas of improving my spiritual life, improving my career
as a musician, improving my family and home, and so much more by
setting goals and making a plan. I had one really big inner change
during this program. As I was working out and trying to hit those
high points I tried to think of what I really wanted. Early on I
thought of the body I wanted and winning the challenge. This was
motivating but after a few weeks I found that what I really wanted
was truth. I am a Christian and believe whole heartedly in God and
the Holy Bible. It is a daily battle to stay focused on God and I get
so tired of myself not trusting and believing what I know is true. So
when I was fighting for those high points I imagined that I was
battling to stand up for God. By doing these workouts I was training
my mind to fight not just in the workout but in my life. I only have
one chance to live on this earth so I’d better fight for what I
know I should be doing while I’m here.

AND
FINALLY, HERE ARE THE PHOTOS

We were trying to figure out what to do next because we really felt good doing this and it certainly was a benefit to us. So we have ordered the Insanity program (as seen on TV) and will start that as soon as we get it. Thanks to everyone who supported us and has been praying for us. May God bless you.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

One week to go! What
a journey it has been. I already feel
proud that we have made it this far without getting off track. It’s hard to say how and why we did it. I know I’ve said before that planning and
setting goals has been really helpful.
But even then, I don’t always stick to other things that I plan for and
set goals for. I think it helped that
the plan was fairly simple. It helped
that we were investing extra money into it because we don’t like to waste
money. It helped telling others about it
so we felt accountable. I think the real
key was that God has been with us. And I
can’t explain why that is but we’ve tried things like this before and have
never finished them.

A friend of ours had leukemia and amazingly got rid of it after
a long struggle. I asked him after he
had been heeled of it if he had any big spiritual breakthroughs from going
through this. The thing that I remember
him saying was that he learned to really own his prayers. I got what he was saying at the time but I’m
starting to get it even more lately. I
can’t just come up with my wish list and say, “Okay God, I want a vintage 1936
Martin D-18 guitar in mint condition, I want a Corvette, a big new house, etc.” The thing is, I may think I want these but deep
down I don’t really want them. I’m after
what I think they will give me. God
knows what we really need. I’m not
saying I needed to get in shape like this but I think it had so much more to do
with all the benefits of doing it like helping my wife, being an example for
the track kids, being an example for our boys, and developing discipline. I think…no, I know God had a reason for us
going through this. For me, I’ve grown
far closer to God than I have in quite a while.

This last week I did much better with planning ahead for my
meals each day. That had been my problem
in the 2 or 3 previous weeks. I also
relaxed a little more and didn’t worry so much about getting the perfect
workout in. I still tried but I think I
was stressing too much about doing everything perfect. Liz has been doing well in her workouts
without stressing about them. She just
does it. Me, I have to analyze everything. Liz has seen great changes so I decided that
I should just do the workout.

It’s on to the home stretch.
Our final week. We know what to
do by now and it is routine so we just need to continue doing it and trusting
God. We also need to start working on
our final essay and getting ready for all the stuff we need to turn in at the
end of the competition. I’ll post our
final photo comparisons next week.

Monday, August 20, 2012

This last week was a tough week for me.
Liz was fairly consistent but I had some difficulties. The main
thing was I wasn't sleeping well mostly because my mind was very
active which caused me to stay up planning for all my projects,
researching, and being anxious. We also seemed to get on a bad track
with our digestion. We ate out at a Chinese Restaurant on our free
day (last Sunday). It was delicious but it didn't seem to sit well
with our stomachs and it surprisingly took the week to get back on
track. I think some of our supplements are not sitting well with us either.

As I read through my workout notes from
this past week, I see how each day I seemed to have some note saying
I didn't do as well, was lacking energy, and was failing to hit my
high intensities. By the end of the week I got really dizzy in my
workout on Friday and had to alter it. Saturday I took the day off
to get caught up on sleep.

I also altered my diet this last week
so I wasn't eating as many supplements. I tried to eat more whole
foods. I didn't plan as well either so I don't think I ate as much
as I should have. This may have been part of my problems in my
workout.

So... this week it is time to get back
on track. I got rested up this weekend so I feel ready for the week.
I recommitted myself to making sure I get enough sleep, decided to
relax more so my mind isn't stressed and anxious, and plan and eat
what I need. Planning is so key. Any day I plan things out, not
just for Body for Life but in everything, I am noticeably more
productive. I've noticed when I practice guitar I have not been very
productive lately so last week I started to really identify what I
want and need to work on. I wrote out some plans and started to
journal about my practice. I have made some huge gains in my
practice just in one week.

God, help me to place all my trust
in You. I recognized that you were with me in the beginning with
this and I have gotten lost in other things. I keep wanting to do
better but I am very inconsistent. I 'm not planning ahead as well.
I'm not being careful on my Free Days. And I'm not focused daily on
You in this. Thank You for Your grace and mercy that You have shown
me through this process. Help me to stick up for what I know You are
leading me to do.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

The last few weeks of the Body for Life
program have moved along very quickly. We continue to improve each
day finding new, healthier, tastier foods to eat and improving our
form on our exercises. Our bodies have changed for the better. We
have more energy, better posture, and general strength to do more.
We've trained our minds to push through challenges in the workouts
daily. This translates to daily challenges of house cleaning, work,
spiritual challenges, etc. Needless to say, it has been a really
good experience so far and well worth the effort of making the time,
planning ahead, and putting the extra money into it. A wise
investment.

I don't have much to share about this
past week. One thing that stands out though is the whole mind over
body thing. I'm sure it won't sound very appealing but I really look
forward to the opportunity to push myself. In the beginning, not so
much. But now I know that I better myself and make myself stronger
when I push passed what I think my body can handle. There's an
incredible sense of accomplishment when it happens. I remember when
I was in Cross Country in high school and college I would usually
dread the hard workouts and competition. Even though I did pretty
good, it was really hard and painful. A big difference I notice now
is that I'm recovered, energized, and ready for each workout. The
meal plan makes a huge difference.

Thought I'd share an example of a workout and meal plan from this past week

You'll notice in the intensity levels, I don't always reach a 10. A 10 means you are pushing passed what you think you can do. You should be able to say that there was no way you could have done anymore repetitions. It's very hard to do. I only hit 3 of the 5 tens for this particular day. It's very hard to get a 10 on every exercise because of the amount of focus it takes. I'm pretty hard on myself too so it's hard for me to give myself a 10. You can also see my notes and side comments about my form. I always write down questions I have and problems I'm having so I can research them and do better the next time.

Some of my abbreviations and symbols might not make sense so I'll try to clarify. The P & C on the Eating page are for Protein and Carbs so I could count them and make sure I got enough portions. I used quotations in the Actual column if I ate what I planned. Myo is the Myoplex protein drink that we have after every workout. Multi and Fish Oil are vitamins.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Wow! We are really doing it. We are
moving along in this program, hitting our workouts and eating what we
need to. We are feeling stronger all the time both in our bodies and
minds. It really is mostly a mental challenge. What's cool though
is that the body reflects the mind.

Well we are really embracing this
lifestyle more and more all the time. We rewarded ourselves with
some things to help us in this challenge. Liz has been working on
some issues in her back that she has had for a long time. She's been
getting chiropractic treatment and using a back roller to help
straighten her back. We also got an armband to take my smartphone
with us on runs. Liz uses it mostly for music but we can also track
our runs. I also got some weight lifting gloves that help a lot with
getting a good grip and lifting more weight. Along with some new
workout clothes, we are feeling good and enjoying this lifestyle. I
think it will stick. Our plan after completing this program is to do
a 12 week sprint program. As a lot of you know, Liz is the head high
school girls track coach. I help out once in a while too. So we
want to be able to train these kids better. Liz and I were both
distance runners and need to learn about sprinting. What better way
than to train ourselves.

I listed 6 things last week that we
need to work on to do better. Some of them were unsuccessful but we
definitely stepped it up.

I was able to workout with Liz
only once rather than twice. I think it will be more realistic to
shoot for 1 workout together each week.

We did study form for our weight lifting and have greatly
improved in this area. I can tell I am getting a better workout and
will be less likely to get injured.

Portion sizes with food – Liz has been
doing well with this but I have tried to make sure I am getting
enough to eat and it is going well.

I do keep checking in on past
winners to see what they have done. Mostly what I have learned is I
need to trust the program. I think I'm basically doing everything I
can. I keep wanting to do more but past advice has said to stick to
the program. You don't need to workout more or eat differently than
what the program lays out for you. Keep it simple.

I have not written anything yet
for the final essay but I know it's still a little early.

I have been recording my meals
better. I still need to make sure I record how much water I'm
getting.

The final big thing was making sure God
is with us. This is tough to measure. Of course one can always
improve greatly in this area. I think this is where we can step it
up the most though. Liz and I were doing devotionals and praying
together each day for a little while at the beginning of this
challenge. Now it is every few days. I am pretty sure that our only
chance at winning this competition is to have God on our side. He
has already blessed us so much through this challenge. He has given
us amazing opportunities including the use of a full gym at no cost.
He has kept us focused on eating right and training right. The
series that our pastor is going through this summer has been
incredibly relevant to us. It seems beyond coincidental that God is
already with us in this. God has made it known to us that He is with
us. I just want to make sure we finish strong WITH God and making
sure we are living according to the spirit; not the flesh. The
hardest part is having three little boys that almost always need our
attention. BUT, that is no excuse because we can make the time if we
really want to.

Finally, we did take 8 week photos. Since I did the 4 week comparison, Liz said she would reveal her 8 week comparison photos.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

As I think about what the Olympians had
to go through to train to compete for the gold, it makes me wonder if
I'm competing at that level with this Body for Life challenge. We
are competing with a lot of people in the country for this title of
2012 Body for Life Champions. I think of Ryan Lochte who went into
his race yesterday in the 400m Individual Swimming Medley knowing he
was capable of winning. He knew because of how he had trained. I
guess I still feel like I can do better in this competition. Of my
five goals, I feel the weakest on the part about winning the
competition and also supporting Liz. Basically I'm thinking as long
as no one goes all out with this, we have a chance.

With only five weeks to go I need to
start putting everything I've got into this to make sure we win. WE
need to be the ones who are going all out for this. I know it's so
easy to say well I'm doing good enough. I know these Olympians
didn't say that's good enough as they were training; at least the
ones competing to win. The commercial that's been on about finding
your own greatness really sticks out to me. Even though we're not
competing for the Olympics, we can still compete like one. After all
we did decide that we wanted to do this. We wanted to challenge
ourselves to this. I've wanted to build more muscle my whole life.
I want to see what it feels like to win a big competition like this.
I find as we get further along in this I feel like even if I don't
win, we've made some good progress. While this is true, I don't
think this is a winning attitude.

This next week is going to be a little
challenging as we will be traveling a lot. I was impressed to see
Liz planning our meals and workouts out yesterday for the week so we
are ready. We will be cooking a lot today so we have a lot of good
foods to bring with us this week. We will be getting some day passes
at a couple of gyms while we are traveling to make sure we get our
weight training days in.

Even though we are doing well with
getting our meals and getting our workouts in, I know there is more
we can do. It's time to take this to the next level. Here's the
plan:

Need to workout with Liz at least
2 times a week. We know we can't do our aerobic workouts together
so we need to try to get at least 2 of the 3 weight lifting days in
together to stay connected in this and push each other.

We need to study our form and make
sure we are doing the exercises as accurately as possible focusing
on the correct muscle groups.

We need to really make sure our
portion sizes are accurate. I know I need to make sure I'm eating
enough. It's really hard to get all the calories I need and still
eat healthy. It's a lot of food.

I need to read up on what past
champions have done to win.

I need to journal more so I'm
ready for the final essay.

I need to make sure I record every
meal and especially how much water I'm drinking to make sure I get
enough.

There's a lot of detail things we need
to do. We've already invested enough into this that it would be a
shame not to take these extra steps to win.

I just realized a huge thing we've
started to fail in. We need God with us. Our busy life has taken
over again and we've gotten away from really putting our trust in
Him. We desperately need to spend time with God. We need to work as
if it were all up to us and pray as if it were all up to God.

I performed the hymn “Just a Closer
Walk With Thee” this morning in church. Isn't this exactly what we
need? If God is with us and for us, who can stand against us?